<p>Should prospective college students worry about attending a school with a low graduation rate such as 55%? what exactly does a low graduation really mean? does it mean that the students are lazy or that the school is hard to graduate from in 4 years....?</p>
<p>It means that many of the students do not graduate in 4 years, most likely because of their own faults-ie-laziness, classes too hard, smoking too much weed....etc</p>
<p>You should not worry about the graduation rates, unless you become influenced by the people who dont care about college...</p>
<p>At a college I know, the 4 year grad rate is around 6%, but those 6% tried hard, and they are quite accomplished. So my point is this: Go wherever, but dont fall in with the wrong crowd.</p>
<p>There's also another possibility besides students' laziness--too much red tape and messy registration.</p>
<p>At a LAC, it's more likely to be laziness or hard classes or a large proportion of students taking a year off during school to study abroad or something. But at a big university (or any school known for having a difficult to deal with administration), it could also be people having problems getting all the classes they need for their major on time because things aren't offered reliably or with enough sections. Could even be an incompetent advising system that's bad about telling people what they need to take to graduate on time.</p>
<p>How exactly are hard classes a student's fault? For that matter, why would you group that in with smoking pot and being lazy?</p>
<p>At schools such as Caltech the low graduation rate is an indication of the fact that the school will not sugarcoat their education. Schools like Caltech and Reed have relatively low graduation rates because they have no grade inflation, difficult classes, and tough competition. Other schools, however, like neelesh said, may have low rates due to apathetic student bodies.</p>
<p>pseudonym.... when you study abroad you STUDY... as in, take classes.</p>
<p>thats a misleading 'fact' if it just means that students don't graduate in 4 years. cause doesn't like 98 percent of the people graduate on time.</p>
<p>soccerguy, you need to understand that just because you take classes doesn't mean you get credit for them, or that you get the credit you need to graduate on time from them. It's not nearly as simple as you seem to think it is. Some schools and some majors make it easy to study abroad, but some don't. I know plenty of people who had to take time off to study abroad because they wanted to do a program their school wasn't affiliated with, and many more who ended up spending more than four years in undergrad because they only got useless elective credit for the courses they took abroad. Some schools have a structure that makes it difficult or impossible to study abroad and still graduate 4 years from when they enrolled--at St. John's College, for instance, a student who decided to study abroad would always be extending their time in college past four years. At Reed, the qual that students have to take their junior year makes it impossible to take the typical "junior year abroad", so some people who want the study abroad experience take time off to get it (though I've heard some people just do it sophomore year or fall semester of junior year instead).</p>
<p>Pay attention. There is a problem at schools with low 4 year graduation rates.</p>
<p>I understand, and yes it is true that often you cannot get major credits elsewhere. However, if you have previously planned for this, then you will still be fine.</p>
<p>Another option for study abroad is during the summer.</p>